Three ex-Google engineers have created a Microsoft Surface clone

Microsoft’s Surface tablet has inspired a few clones during its short history, but the latest rip off comes from three ex-Google engineers. Jeremy Zhou, David Ko, and Ben Luk used to work on products like Google Maps and search at the web giant, and formed Jide Technology in 2014 to create a combined tablet and laptop. The result is an “ultra tablet” with a magnetically attached keyboard and a kickstand that all looks identical to Microsoft’s Surface tablet. Jide Technology hasn’t just stopped at the hardware, though. Even the “Remix OS” rips off Microsoft’s work in various ways, including a mail client that’s a straight copy.

So what’s the justification for such a blatant rip? “We can’t stand the drawbacks of the tablets and laptops on…